MSA releases 40-km specs for optical transceiver modules

The 10X10 MSA has added to its potential portfolio of 100-Gbps optical modules with the announcement of specifications for 10-km and 40-km reach. The MSA, inspired by Google’s desire for what it perceived as a lower-cost, more readily available alternative to the IEEE 802.3ba’s 100GBase-LR4 specification, has already released specifications for a 2-km optical module in a CFP form factor (see “10X10 MSA ratifies 100-Gbps module specification”).

The 10-km reach specification, aimed primarily at campus applications, leverages the 2-km specifications to ensure backward compatibility and interoperability with the existing shorter-reach module. The metro-focused 40-km specification leverages existing 10-Gbps DWDM network specifications, MSA members assert.“The 10x10G, 40-km reach implementation of 10 wavelength channels on a 100-GHz DWDM grid allows cost-effective future upgrades to 4x100G or even 8x100G over a single fiber to meet the increasing bandwidth demand in metro networks,” said Stefan Rochus, vice president of marketing and business development at MSA member CyOptics.

“We are very pleased with the widespread adoption of 10X10 optical modules. The new 10X10-40Km standard enables up to 800 Gbps of data to transmit over a single fiber – that’s the speed the industry needs,” says Scott Kipp, chair of 10X10 MSA and senior technologist at Brocade.

However, there remains some mystery about just how widespread that adoption is. While the MSA includes several module suppliers, only Santur has announced availability of production 2-km 10X10 MSA-compliant modules (see “Santur 10X10 MSA 100-Gbps CFP optical modules now generally available”). However, Rang-Chen Yu, vice president of business development of Oplink, was quoted in the announcement of the new specs as saying that Oplink “looks forward to continue providing cost-efficient innovative product solutions to meet the customer demand,” so not every effort may be openly discussed.

November 16, 2011

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